Going Nuts?

A Tale Of Winning The War Against Squirrelly Behavior

December 08, 2000|By Alan J. Heavens, Knight Ridder/Tribune.

It may be too soon to rent Times Square for a victory celebration, but I believe that I have won the war against the squirrels in my eaves.

My weapons: Rid-A-Critter and Ropel Liquid, plus an ample supply of hardware cloth, steel wool, new fascia and crown molding (primed with oil-based paint) and some judicious pruning of branches that had provided a bridge from the trees to my house.

Squirrels are tenacious creatures. Once they get into your space, it is tough to get them out. They gnaw on wood to sharpen their teeth and to get into new spaces. They chew electrical wire. They run through the floorboards late at night.

I had problems with them 10 years ago. We spent the entire winter of 1990 with an unknown number of squirrels running across our ceiling night after night.

Never again.

Ten years ago, I tried to trap the leader with a Havahart trap, using peanut butter as bait. I put the trapped squirrel in the Volvo wagon I then owned, letting it loose on the local golf course.

I was told that because squirrels had this amazing homing device, you had to make it tough for them to find their way back.

I'm sure that the trap and the trip traumatized the poor thing. Worse, I left the squirrel without money for greens fees.

This time, the squirrels found a home in a soffit on the side of the house after a piece of crown molding had rotted and fallen out.

Recalling how miserable they had made me so many years ago, I decided to research the latest products available to get rid of them without doing them harm.

That is, deter without destroying.

That led me both to the Internet and to the Hardware Show in Chicago. Few sites on the Internet intelligently discuss squirrels. The exception is www.bugspray.net, a clearinghouse for a variety of antidotes to pests.

At the Hardware Show in August, I met John Callahan of Pest Solutions of Grand Rapids, Mich. Callahan's company makes the Scoot line of pest repellents, which are designed to alter the behavior of squirrels and other pests.

The downside is that Scoot's primary ingredient is red pepper. While Callahan insists that squirrels aren't permanently harmed by coming in contact with red pepper, it is apparent to me that they are made to suffer somewhat for the sin of natural behavior.

When the squirrels come in contact with Scoot--it is applied to feeding and hiding spots, shrubs, feeder poles and grassy areas--they get it on their paws. When they rub their eyes and mouth, it provides the same sensation you get when you eat a hot pepper.

No matter how angry I get at the squirrels, this bothers me, since the critters keep coming back until they get the idea. But the call is yours to make.

You need to keep applying Scoot over 7 to 10 days to get it to become effective. Spraying it on the underside of plants where the squirrels travel helps keep the rain from washing the Scoot away.

While Scoot's temporary effect on squirrels concerns me, I saw a lot of things at the Hardware Show that were a bit more forceful in dealing with pests. For example, AgriZap of Ventura, Calif., manufactures the RatZapper--a trap that kills rats and mice with a deadly shock. However, it is targeted toward commercial applications where rats are a bigger problem than homeowners face.

Contech Electronics of Canada is marketing a motion-activated sprinkler, the Scarecrow, which uses an infrared sensor to detect unwanted intruders and then send a sudden jet of water to startle the pest.

Good for the summer, not the winter.

After seemingly endless research, I settled on two products: Ropel, a spray made by Burlington Scientific of Farmingdale, N.Y., and Rid-A-Critter, made by Dr. T's Nature Products of Pelham, Ga.

Ropel contains no red pepper, but despite the manufacturer's contention that it is odorless, it briefly smells like rotten cabbage when you spray it.

Best, or worst, I suppose, it tastes terrible, and so you spray it on surfaces the squirrels chew on--such as crown molding or facing boards.

You coat whatever surface you want to protect, let the surface dry, and recoat it. One gallon can treat up to 4,000 square feet for two weeks--the time it takes for the squirrels to get the message.

I've gotten some of the spray in my mouth, and believe me, the taste was hideous. But it didn't burn or cause me any discomfort.

Rid-A-Critter is 100 percent naphthalene, the stuff mothballs are made of. Since I've unsuccessfully used mothballs in the past as a squirrel deterrent, I was initially skeptical, but this is in crystalline form and can be poured into cheesecloth or a mesh bag.

The vapor fills the cavity. The odor is overpowering. It also masks the squirrel's own scent, and together they seem to alter the habitat so that the squirrels leave.